top 25

If you follow the same routine as Robert Orban (“Every morning I get up and look through the Forbes list of the richest people in America. If I’m not there, I go to work”), you had the opportunity to see if you made it as one of the newest members of the Forbes richest people in the world list. With less than 2000 people claiming one of these coveted spots, the likelihood that you have another year of work is pretty high.

Bill Gates seems to have followed his money tips well for 2014. After a four year hiatus from the top spot, he regained the title of richest man in the world. With a net worth of $76 billion, he moved passed Carlos Slim Helu ($72 billion) who made his fortune in the Mexican telecom industry. Warren Buffett, who also has some sound money tips, remained in fourth position, the same spot he held last year.

To make the top 25 richest people in the world, you needed to have a net worth of nearly $25 billion. Only a single person, Carl Icahn, was able to make that list with less, and he just barely missed it at $24.5 billion.

There were a record number of billionaires this year according to Forbes. In total, there were 1,645 billionaires who made the list, up from 1,426 who made the list in 2013. This year the average net worth came in at $4.7 billion for those who made the list. The combined total value of these billionaires reached $6.4 trillion, a cool $1 trillion more than last year,which was $5.4 trillion.

The vast majority of the billionaires made their fortunes on their own. Of the 1,645 billionaires on the list, 66% (1,080) were self-made. 34% of those on the list inherited at least a portion of their wealth, with 21% (352) still growing that wealth and 13% (207) living off the inheritance.

Mark Zuckerberg was the biggest gainer of net worth over the past year by more than doubling his net worth from 2013 to $28.5 billion in 2014, moving into the top 25 list at number 21. He could thank his good fortune on his stake in Facebook stock which dramatically increased in the past year.

There were quite a few new faces to the list. There were a total of 268 newcomers added to this year. This was the highest number ever added by 42 people, when 226 new billionaires were added to the list in 2008. This included a record number of 172 women, a 25% increase from the 2013 list.

There were also those who didn’t have the best of years. A total of 100 people fell off the list, with another 16 passing away over the year.